Anyone listened to Kill Em All recently?

Doctor J

I'm mean listened to it loud, really loud, letting it blast?

It's been a while since I've given it a spin and I'm just totally enjoying the raw energy of every single tune. This is such a fantastic album, they just don't make albums with this kind of verve anymore

feylya

No Burton and no drunk band. Shame really.

Doctor J

I don't just mean Metallica, I mean any feckin band. This is an album for drinking and group shouting of backup vocals, raised fists, etc.

Sort of like classic ST.

It wasn't me!

I did do that recently, and yeah, I love the guts of that album. It's youthful and energetic and has a violence to it they lost afterwards I feel.

cournioni

Haven't listened to Metallica in quite some time thankfully Doc. My hatred for them is still growing.

Charm Offensive

Doctor J wrote:

This is an album for drinking and group shouting of backup vocals, raised fists, etc.

Down with this sort of thing (careful now)!

Doctor J

PORNAPSTER wrote:

Haven't listened to Metallica in quite some time thankfully Doc. My hatred for them is still growing.

Bah, whatever evils they have committed since the 90's, the first four albums are above reproach.

Patricide

I havent listened to kill em all recently but ive listened to puppets and lightning full blast recently and by god di it make me happy, after that i kept going with megadeth testament and exodus, God why couldnt i have grown up in the 80's

pbsuxok1znja4r

It's funny; high-gain up-tempo metal is my bag, but long hair, leather and the aesthetic that go with them just ain't. Which is why the kill 'em all lyrics and attitude are just, to me, dumb. I can understand that it might hold some relevance for someone from in or around the era, though. Decent music though. Kill 'Em All is among their weakest, though. Half the solos sound the same and some of the them just hi-jack the songs in the most un-dynamic way possible. Hetfield's vocals only really came into their own in the 90's. Anesthesia, Motorbreath and The Four Horsemen are really it's only saving graces. Never a big fan of Seek & Destroy, either. MOP through S&M FTW.

Ronan|Raven

Listened to it last night as it happens. One of my favourite albums due to pretty much what the O.P. said. Motorbreath needs to be fully appreciated over a flagon of ale!

dcr22B

Funnily enough, I was doing some work around the house on Saturday and as my other half was out shopping, I decided that I'd put 3 CDs in the hi-fi (Kill Em All, Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets). Hadn't listened to any of them for a good while and I was singing, headbanging and air-guitaring my way around teh house.

3 LEGENDARY ALBUMS!

Agent Steel

I listened to it on Sunday for the first time in quite a while. It's still incredible.

toffo

Must dig that one out, been way too long since i last heard it. Hope the tape still works

Ph3n0m

Doctor J - no one will ever understand.

These kids nowadays with their ipods and pay per view porn

Back in our day we had walkmans with tapes and free page 3 girls - oh and jeans we ripped the knees out on purpose cause it was cool

None of this lets pay 150 euro for some pre-ripped jeans!!!!

oh and scouser.tommy - you have no soul

gucci

actually just got my kill em all cd back off a mate lasnite after lending it to him about two years, then i read this, pretty wierd! listening to it now at work, oh yeah!! actually getting excited about seeing them in june now although il hav to be pretty drunk for them to sound this good!!

Ancient1

scouser.tommy wrote:

Which is why the kill 'em all lyrics and attitude are just, to me, dumb.

But attitude is precisely what it was all about.

oh and scouser.tommy - you have no soul

Smackdown.

Gonzo

being a teenager in the late eighties/early-mid nineties it brings a tear to my eye to listen to early metallica/megadeth/anthrax/manowar/maiden stuff and then compare it to todays *stuff*. I havent bought a metal magazine since the early 90s coz they are now nothing more than slightly heavier versions of Smash Hits but decided to look at Kerrangs recent 25 years of Metal article and flicking thru it really brings it all home how much metal has changed from the good ole days to now... very sad:(

Arucard

Kill Em All is a good drinking album, but when it comes down to it, THE number one album to drink & tear it up to has got to be Vulgar Display of Power.
HOLD YOUR MOUTH FOR THE WAR!
USE IT FOR WHAT ISNT FOR!
SPEAK THE TRUTH ABOUT ME!
DETERMINED!!
*air guitar solo*

Alter-Ego

Lately its an album i've been listening to a lot, not really full bast tho, just in my MP3. Just Kill em All, i'm not in the mood for any of the other stuff at the moment for some reason.

Malice

Coincidentally I threw this on a couple of weeks ago. As mentioned by another poster, the solos are technically excellent but never struck me as particularly interesting. One thing that always hits me whenever I play this or any of the classic Metallica albums (i.e. the Black album and before) is just how good Metallica were.

A Primal Nut

Yeah Kill 'Em All rocks. It's just such a straightforward no nonsense metal album, kinda like Appetite For Destruction. A collection of raw, metal tracks before the brilliant complexity of later albums. I prefer the next two albums, because I love the complexity, but its great they got a chance to make an album like this. To tell the truth I never really listened to it over and over for a full analysis but some songs stick out. Hit The Lights is such a simple but classic metal track. I can't believe it never makes a return to the set. Would make a great opener. The Four Horsemen, Seek and Destroy, Motorbreath and Jump In The Fire. They seem to only ever play Seek And Destroy and Whiplash from this album as far as I know, but there are much better songs on the album.

Incidentally I never blame Metallica for the quality of St. Anger. They are a bunch of 40-year olds trying to imitate what they were like in their early 20's. It takes a bunch of early 20 year old alcoholic guys trying to play as loud and fast as possible to make a record like this. I love the black album and don't hate the Load albums. They had gotten older and wanted to change and do different stuff, because Kill Em All-type metal just wasn't in them anymore. They had changed. If your only a fan of extreme metal the 90's stuff won't appeal, but I think people with broad music tastes beyond metal should appreciate them. St. Anger, though was just a pathetic attempt at replicating themselves when they started out and it went horribly wrong! They just don't have the same attitude anymore so people saw right through it as a fake.

senordingdong

I too wish to express my fondness for that particular album.

pbsuxok1znja4r

wrote:

You have no soul

Haven't the true metalheads all sold theirs anyway?

If I want something where the conscientious craft of music takes a back seat to ballsy in-yer-grill, take-no-prisoners attitude (and on rare occasion I do), then I'll go listen to some gangsta rap.

Ancient1 wrote:

But attitude is precisely what it was all about.

Bollocks. I'd take their more well-crafted music over it anyday. At the end of the day, at least half of what makes a good record is down to what vibrations enter your ears. It's about as simple as that.
As far as "attitude" goes; sound and fury, mate. Just sound and fury.

Really, the only reason they "don't make 'em like they used to" is because you guys are no longer in that early 20's alcoholic guy stage. If they came out with the exact same album today, it still wouldn't be the same for you. Welcome to the 21st century, etc.

wrote:

Smackdown.

Kill 'Em All is a decent album. But ain't a patch on later Metallica. There's no trying to deny that Hetfield and co. had the most swagger during the 90's anyway. Load and Reload have attitude by the bucketload.

It wasn't me!

Bollocks to you sir! Attitude made that album, just like Reign in Blood was sheer balls.

pbsuxok1znja4r

Haha, "bollocks" to me? :rolleyes: Pity such attitude does nothing for your posting style, eh? It's simple, bub: Kill 'Em All had attitude. Everything afterward had as much attitude but with better musicianship to boot. Doesn't take a genius. Which is just as well.

Ancient1

scouser.tommy wrote:

Bollocks. I'd take their more well-crafted music over it anyday.

And that's fine. The point is Kill Em All is what it is - it's a statement and a snapshot of its time. When you look at it that way, it's a monument of an album.

pbsuxok1znja4r

Ancient1 wrote:

And that's fine. The point is Kill Em All is what it is - it's a statement and a snapshot of its time. When you look at it that way, it's a monument of an album.

"Snapshot of it's time" being the key phrase there. Yeah, maybe Kill Em All was groundbreaking or original for its time and uniquely representative of its time. But that's not how I judge music. All I have to do is play Kill 'Em All next to any other album (with the possible exception of St Anger) in my CD player to know immediately which one I think is better. Obviously there is a mood for every album and the mood for Kill 'Em All may well take members of an older an generation more often than it would my generation. So anyone would be hard pushed to come up with some kind of objective reason why one album is better, I guess.

Ph3n0m

scouser.tommy wrote:

If I want something where the conscientious craft of music takes a back seat to ballsy in-yer-grill, take-no-prisoners attitude (and on rare occasion I do), then I'll go listen to some gangsta rap.

But everyone knows gangsta rap attained perfection in the 80s with Ice T, Ice Cube and NWA - not forgetting Public Enemy

pbsuxok1znja4r

Ph3n0m wrote:

But everyone knows gangsta rap attained perfection in the 80s with Ice T, Ice Cube and NWA - not forgetting Public Enemy

Touché. Generally the only stuff I'd listen to would be from ex-members of NWA anyway. :cool:

*Tripper*

I was sitting on the M50 in traffic the other day blasting Kill Em' All with all windows down and it occured to me, Holy Fcuk these lads were all just around 18 and for Hammet to master the Four Horseman solo and add his own twists onto it is amazing.

Oobie

Have it on my ipod at the moment - classic album and one that really got me into metal as a young teenager, although it had been out a few years by then :-)

It wasn't me!

scouser.tommy wrote:

Haha, "bollocks" to me? :rolleyes: Pity such attitude does nothing for your posting style, eh? It's simple, bub: Kill 'Em All had attitude. Everything afterward had as much attitude but with better musicianship to boot. Doesn't take a genius. Which is just as well.

A: no need to be a prick about a comment that was not meant offensively. I am intelligent, without question, and there is no need to call it into question.

B: Nothing after Kill 'Em All had that same raw energy, and no, I am not of the older generation, I am almost certainly of a generation younger than your own, so that's not the issue, but that album had fury, which is what mattered. Nothing afterwards was the same in that regard, though the compositions and structuring got more intense.

Zapp Brannigan

Kill 'Em All - Meh, its alright. Kinda shows how good Dave Mustaine would have been in that band

But ..And Justice for All, on the other hand, is a masterpiece! The guitar tone is unreal, the drums sound so excellent (for Lars). Too bad about the retarded tech who couldn't record bass properly.

It wasn't me!

Yeah, I can't like that album much for the lack of bass...

Zapp Brannigan

It wasn't me! wrote:

Yeah, I can't like that album much for the lack of bass...

Some guy did his own job of remastering it and now the bass is audible. Its actually quite good. It's the only version I listen to now.

senordingdong

They did that on purpose didn't they?

It wasn't me!

senordingdong wrote:

They did that on purpose didn't they?

I'd heard there was some sort of spite with Newsted, so they cut out his bass material, could just be hearsay though, to be honest. The re-release Slurms is referring to is called ...And Justice For Jason methinks. I wanna find it. It'd help me appreciate that album. I know it kicks ass, but it sounds awful...

Tar.Aldarion

Was just listening it today for the first time in God knows how long. Really gott to give it to them, four great albums. I sometimes forget they were good and theink they were over rated. Then I listen to the music.
Oh memories. Right, off to play seek and destroy on the 'axe'.

Doctor J

Slurms wrote:

Some guy did his own job of remastering it and now the bass is audible. Its actually quite good. It's the only version I listen to now.

Actually he recorded himself playing bass along to the cd. Remastering wouldn't make a difference, you can't really turn up what isn't there. Good effort by the lad

120_Minutes

Doctor J wrote:

Actually he recorded himself playing bass along to the cd. Remastering wouldn't make a difference, you can't really turn up what isn't there. Good effort by the lad

I'd like to hear this, often thought about doing it! where could one *ahem* procure it?

phantom_lord

Slurms wrote:

Some guy did his own job of remastering it and now the bass is audible. Its actually quite good. It's the only version I listen to now.

That sounds like something worth picking up. Thanks for the info.

phantom_lord

120_Minutes wrote:

I'd like to hear this, often thought about doing it! where could one *ahem* procure it?

Found it!

http://www.jasonizer.com/justice.html

senordingdong

It wasn't me! wrote:

I'd heard there was some sort of spite with Newsted, so they cut out his bass material, could just be hearsay though, to be honest. The re-release Slurms is referring to is called ...And Justice For Jason methinks. I wanna find it. It'd help me appreciate that album. I know it kicks ass, but it sounds awful...

No I read that Newsted wasn't even in the band for the recordings, and they didn't wanna put huge emphasis on the bass making it look like they were trying to replace Burton.

Doctor J

Ehhhh, Newsted joined the band in 86 and recorded the bass-heavy Garage Days Revisited EP in 87. He was around for the 88 release of AJFA for sure. The sound of AJFA is just a sonic reflection of the dominant characters of the band. They were going for a big, prominent bass drum sound and big, heavy, thick low-end guitar, both of which were operating in the same frequency range as the bass. Given that most of the basslines on AJFA were just shadowing what the rhythm guitar was doing it's no surprise he got cut from the mix. In fairness to Bob Rock, he spent a lot of time with Jason finding a bass tone that could co-exist with the bass drum and rhythm guitar sound on the next album without being overwhelmed.

Motley Crue

Listened to it recently, I remember the last time I went to see Metallica they only played one song from Kill Em All, Seek and Destroy and I was always puzzled by that....although in retrospect its a 23 year old album and 'Hit the Lights' might be a great song but it doesnt hold much weight in the wake of songs like 'Fade to Black' and 'Master of Puppets'

Cliff recorded an interview 12 hours before he died, in which he said that he had hardly listened to Kill Em All since it was released, and that the band had moved on from then a lot...basically Kill Em All was a collection of songs the band had had lying around since 81 that they just hadnt recorded, it was every piece of original material they had PRIOR to that and there was no sitting down and writing the album over a period of time, no plan

Ph3n0m

Cliff might not have listened to Kill Em All a lot because his influences on it were not prevalient

http://www.metallica.com/Media/Albums/albums.asp?album_id=1%20

He was not one of the key song writers at that early stage

senordingdong

Doctor J wrote:

Ehhhh, Newsted joined the band in 86 and recorded the bass-heavy Garage Days Revisited EP in 87. He was around for the 88 release of AJFA for sure.

Well thanks for clearing that up, I was just repeating what I read.
But does that mean they adapted to his sound for AJFA?

Doctor J

Motley Crue wrote:

Cliff recorded an interview 12 hours before he died, in which he said that he had hardly listened to Kill Em All since it was released, and that the band had moved on from then a lot...basically Kill Em All was a collection of songs the band had had lying around since 81 that they just hadnt recorded, it was every piece of original material they had PRIOR to that and there was no sitting down and writing the album over a period of time, no plan

But that applies to every band's first album. Until you put out an album, you don't really think of your tunes in an album format as they no doubt did afterwards. Before you get signed you just write the best tunes you can without any particular one-disc concept in mind (OK I'm sure there is an exception somewhere but this applies to the vast majority of bands out there).

Doctor J

senordingdong wrote:

Well thanks for clearing that up, I was just repeating what I read.
But does that mean they adapted to his sound for AJFA?

I recall an interview with Newsted just prior to the black album coming out where he explained that the tone he had for AJFA was more sutable for slap bass (funk, Larry Graham type of thing) and it didn't sit cleanly with the rhythm guitar or the bass drum. On the black album there are a lot more mid frequencies in the bass tone and that cuts through when so much of the lows are taken up by guitar and drum.

It's odd, because the tone he had on the first Flotsam And Jetsam album was pretty good and worked with the guitars and drums on a vastly smaller budget. On the other hand, it still goes back to Lars and James (still) having the biggest say in the sound of the band. They wanted a particular sound at the time and bass wasn't part of it. It's just the way it goes. I read an interview with Dan Spitz from Anthrax recently where he said that it was just the way of the time, big guitar and drums, little or no bass, it applied to Anthrax too.

Motley Crue

Doctor J wrote:

On the other hand, it still goes back to Lars and James (still) having the biggest say in the sound of the band. They wanted a particular sound at the time and bass wasn't part of it. It's just the way it goes.

As far as I remember they only ever took two pieces of music from Newstead, Blackened and My Friend of Misery, and in 15 years of his input into the band thats got to be harsh...I'm sure he was sitting on tons of demos and bass recordings and maybe we'll hear them one day.

Perhaps thats why it was so insulting when James refused to ALLOW jason to record with a solo band while he was in Metallica, as well as refusing to use his material, because im sure he had material he wanted to use

phantom_lord

Motley Crue wrote:

As far as I remember they only ever took two pieces of music from Newstead, Blackened and My Friend of Misery, and in 15 years of his input into the band thats got to be harsh...I'm sure he was sitting on tons of demos and bass recordings and maybe we'll hear them one day.

Perhaps thats why it was so insulting when James refused to ALLOW jason to record with a solo band while he was in Metallica, as well as refusing to use his material, because im sure he had material he wanted to use

That's exactly it. But don't forget "Where the wild things are"...you're forgetting a third of his writting credits there....